Sunsets and Bear Cubs

I've been enjoying summer time with my pups and watching our bears. Here, the Duo watched the sun set with me.

A pair of Night Hawks nest yearly somewhere close to where we watch the sunset. They glide and swoop over our heads, letting out squeaking noises as they snag insects out of the air. The Duo don't seem to notice but I do. K and I watched the nighthawks last summer on many evenings - another good memory. Now I'm making new good memories with the Duo.

This was the view after the sun finally dipped below the mountains. Ah, I love summertime.

In the bear world, mating season has come to an abrupt halt. The reason probably is that their favorite foods are maturing and ripening. It's time for bears to eat and eat and eat. Over the next couple of months, they'll eat 10's of thousands of calories very day. It's rather stunning when I realize that an animal as big as a bear can eat all the calories that s/he needs for an entire year within the course of a couple of months.

Buffalo Berries

As the mating season has ended, the mothers with cubs are emerging from hiding. More than one family has visited this spring but I'll show you just one visit today, saving the other one for another video. Here are the two cubs who we've seen before.

The family first visited the base of a bear marking tree and then moved onto a nearby pool of water fed by a spring. The cubs are very cute! You can watch their activities here or at Youtube.

Since this mother bear is around my area a lot, I'd like to give her a name to make it easier to talk about her. I believe that she's the mother of "Socks", the young bear with black legs and a cinnamon body who we see photos of regularly. Do you have any ideas for a name?

Happy Solstice!

Happy Solstice to everyone. This photo is from sunset last night, which was so very late!

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it means that daylight lasts longer today than any other day of the year. For our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, the tide is turning - your days will now get longer! So, I think it's a good day for all of us.

It's a good day for Shyla, who is feeling better, after her diarrhea stress-reaction to a visit to town earlier this week. She went to my PT clinic with me yesterday, and even though that involved going into town, her tummy is better. Moreover, she seemed very happy at the clinic.

Today, I checked some trail cameras, and I bring good tidings. We have another mother bear in the forest, and this one has two rambunctious cubs.The two cubs were very curious about a bear marking tree that huge males, at least twice as tall as the standing cubs, have marked several times this summer. You can see that the top of the pine sapling is broken off. The adult male bears who mark this tree are taller than the sapling!

The family spent a long time in front of this cam and the one that is pointed at a water hole. I'll have a video of the cuteness soon!

Several of you have asked if I worry about the dogs chasing bears. You might notice in photos that both dogs wear bells. Since we started that tradition almost a decade ago, we've had no close calls with dogs and bears. Even though I am fairly confident that I could call the dogs away from a bear, I'd prefer not to put the bears (and me) through that stress or have the dogs lead a chasing bear back to me. To avoid dog-bear encounters, I also choose the places where I take the dogs very carefully. I've never taken a dog to the place shown in the photos above - I view it as a pristine place for the wildlife.

As I've mentioned in the past, I'm always trying to balance letting my dogs be able to romp with the needs of the wildlife.

Happy Solstice!

P.S. I just learned that today was "Fight like a Frenchie" day for our pal, Benny, a French Bulldog who was just diagnosed with cancer in his liver. We send him and his family the Power of the Paw. To Benny and his family - cherish every day and live it to the fullest - take your inspiration from K, like I did. We're thinking of you.

Play, play, play

I've been trying to do special things to help R and me heal our hearts. So, the other day, we headed over to Dream Valley Ranch for R to play with their new puppy, Huck.

Lots of chasing and playing "keep away" ensued. R would lay claim to a toy and entice Huck into chasing him.

Almost all the photos show the same scene... I love R's eyes peeking over the Monkey toy in the next photo.

Next, it was Mr. Froggie's turn.

It seemed that R had not mastered the art of letting Puppy Huck "win" the game sometimes. When R was a puppy, K would let R think that he'd stolen the toy from her on occasion to keep him interested in playing. I hope that R learns! At least he has learned to wait his turn for a treat...

On a different topic, how many of you get to see this outside your kitchen window (captured by trail camera)? The bear peacefully rested and then walked away, heading for an anthill where my other trail camera photographed him digging for ants.

More about bears tomorrow.